Doc

One thing to remember about a zero-turn mower is that the principle of steering relies on ground to tire slippage. That's what allows the zero turning radius. So you will find that any operation that requires traction will not work well with the zero-turn. They are designed to have controlled slippage. They are not a "pulling" implement.

There are still a lot of Ford 8N's around with a full line of tillage implements that will come in far less than $4000. Farmers used to run entire farms with these indestructible tractors. The 3-point hitch and PTO will power a bush-hog, do the plowing, disking, and dragging, and anything else you might have in mind for plotting.

I have run into old horse-drawn implements on top of the hill where there are all mature trees and no fields. One old horse drawn potato hiller was tipped up against a big old dead tree. If you look real close you can see lines of bigger older trees that likely were some old hedge-row, and some huge rock piles that look completely out of place in the middle of the woods. Here and there I have noted ax-cut trees and old horse trails down the hill where the early farmers brought out firewood and lumber trees. I have found the remnants of an old sap-house. If you look hard enough, there are all kinds of stories of farm life of many years ago that can really get your imagination going. Our old family farm house is over 160 years old now. so it has seen a lot of families come and go, each one making their mark on the landscape, leaving a record of their lives there.

You know, a little camo paint job and some brushing in and it would make a great blind. They should have left the seats in there. You could use the dash board for a gun-rest.

I wonder what the kids of today will remember about their childhood. Will it be memories of the high score on their video games that they got while curled up on the couch?....lol

These reunions keep getting smaller and smaller. Our last reunion (50th) was back in 2011 (Naples class of '61) and only had about 15 attendees. I wonder when it will get to the point where there aren't enough left to organize one anymore. Maybe we're there already. Thank heavens for name tags. None of us look anything like the young brats we were when we graduated. Gravity and good eating and a whole lot of punish wrinkling has taken it's toll.... lol.

She wants you to do the mowing for her, so does that imply that she has some conventional yard mowing included in the use. I mean, will there also be mowing around ornamentals and shrubs and other obstacles? Because for that kind of high speed, agility and precise trimming, I no longer consider anything but a zero-turn. I have a lot of acreage to mow, and the purchase of my zero-turn cut about 1/4 of the mowing time out of the task. Not only that, but it has put a bit of fun into what used to be a drudgery. I just slap on my cowboy hat and give out a couple of YEE-HAWS and it is off to the races.....lol. It seems everybody that I see mowing with one of those things has a great big grin on their face.

I don't eat any hotdogs other than the Zwiegles. I love that tough-skin that pops open when they are done right. I also like them blackened a bit over a good wood fire. Add a side of corn-on-the-cob, and some good potato salad with lots of chopped onions and celery and hard-boiled eggs stirred in (or macaroni salad), and I am in hog heaven!

Everything love a good meal of eggs ..... skunks, cats, coons, possums, foxes, just about every critter that lives in the woods. It's amazing that any of the eggs survive.

I am a huge fan of Kimmelwick buns for just about all uses. Even those Zwiegle hots are great on a lightly toasted kimmelwick bun.

That is a "bargain-deer". Look at all the extra meat you get to eat with that one.

Now there is a guy who is really enjoying his spare time....lol. He just is demonstrating that there really are no limits as to what people can come up with and that crossbow technology has only just begun. It's another whole platform for innovative people to play with.

It all depends on WHY I had to choose between the two. Let's face it, there will probably come a day when the choice will be made for me because of age....lol. It's not a big deal. I don't do marathons anymore either. The fact is there likely will come a day when I can't handle the walking to do either one. If the choice is driven by some bureaucrat in government then I guess I will just have to be a little more sneaky and continue to be a two-season hunter and not yield to making either choice. I am a little bit hardcore on government over-reach.

For critter protection I suggest 4' high welded wire fencing and an electric fence. One strand at the top and another 3" off the ground. This is the rig that we have been using since the 80's and have not had any damage since. Yes, deer could jump over, but they don't.

I have no idea what make or model or year that car is, but my wife and I saw that car a couple years ago when we were hiking that road. We didn't walk over to get a closer look, but the thing has been there a long time by the looks of it. It's got kind of a Ford Falcon-ish look to it. Probably some nifty story behind it.

That worked well!

How much time and energy do you have? It really is more about your limits than the tiller's. How long has it been since the ground was last tilled? Is there a lot of brush, stumps, rocks, etc.? Can you drive right to the site or will you be stuck carrying the sucker through the woods? One thing tillers are not is light. So many questions!

I would be looking for a used or re-conditioned one. There's a lot of guys that buy up old tillers, lawn mowers, garden tractors, etc. and rebuild them and stick them out in their front yard with a for sale sign. There's some great deals out there. Tillers are a pretty tough implement that seem to never die.

Many of my summer days were spent down at the creek across the road where the beavers had built a huge dam that created a huge pond. I had an old level-wind reel on an old broken fishing pole, with nylon line, and a hex nut for a sinker, and a chunk of stick for a bobber. Not exactly high tech, but I still caught fish and had fun. The catch-of-the -day was usually creek-chubs or horned-daces. Not the best tasting fish, but I ate them anyway.

Yeah, the genes for these kinds of oddities are truly recessive and not representative of the species. But to me it is simply a coloration variation that makes the critter look odd and weird and probably is not anything I would have any reason to perpetuate. But I do appreciate that other people have their own reasons for their choices, and that's why I asked the question. I do appreciate the rarity factor. It's kind of like white or black deer. It is a neat thing to see because not everyone has seen one. But, in my mind that does not mean that I would have any reason to have a hand in perpetuating the freakism ......lol.

Just out of curiosity, why would those of you who would pass on a piebald do so, if it met all other acceptable criteria? I really don't understand the logic behind that decision. The only reason I could possibly think of to pass on one is the fact that it looks more like some farmer's goat than a deer ..... lol. Seriously.....what are the thoughts behind that decision?

We went to into northern Ontario Canada back in the 80's. We drove on some pretty remote log roads, dumped in two canoes and a 8' motor boat into a huge lake. We went to the end of that uninhabited lake and portaged 150 yards into another uninhabited lake and went down to the swamp end of that one. We set up a tent camp by the end of the first day I have never experienced that kind of quiet....lol. There were 4 of us with all kinds of bear and moose tags. Drawing tags back then was not an issue. We used an outfitter which was a legal requirement back then, so he got all the tags we needed but that was all we really used the outfitter for. We lived on dried food and some of the best walleye and northern pike I have ever tasted. The one suggestion that worked well for us is to hunt near the water so the removal is only a short distance to the canoes or whatever. We hunted the edge of a river that ran out of the lake we were camped out on, shot the moose at the edge of the river, and the moose dropped at the edge of the river. Quartering up the critter made everything pretty easy and a very short carry. I would highly recommend taking someone with you even if they aren't hunting.

I try to get the best deer that the property has to offer, when the opportunity offers itself. I hunt the deer as I find them and do not concern myself with trying modify the deer or their habitat to accommodate my hunting. I manage my expectations to accommodate reality and enjoy the act of hunting rather than worry about peer acceptance of what I harvest. I find that allows me to enjoy my hunting without stressing about what is going on over at the neighbors or who is shooting a bigger deer than I will get. It's just a different way to approach hunting, and I find it makes me feel a whole lot better about that part of my outdoor activities. Yes there are issues of the quality-of-the-hunt and the fact that I do not enjoy hunting in a crowd and I don't appreciate gangs of hunters interfering with strategies or creating unsafe situations. That simply means that when I feel crowded, I move to a different area or retreat to my own land, but that has nothing to do with "managing the herd" or growing a buck that will make me the hunter-hero of the neighborhood.....lol. I realize that we all hunt for our own reasons, but one of the reasons that I hunt is to de-compress a bit, relax, and not to create stress about things that really don't actually matter all that much. My enjoyment of the activity has sky-rocketed since adopting a more casual attitude toward my hunting. Maybe that's something that comes with age ....lol.

You see this kind of attitude in every aspect of life. Basically it is the free-loaders that let everyone else do the heavy lifting for them and then berate the very organizations that do ALL the work. The funny thing is that when you ask them, What have you done to stop the 'gun control nut jobs'? you are met with dead silence. Today it is fashionable to belittle your allies while enjoying the work that is done on your behalf. It's the "free-ride gang" letting others finance the legal battles and the lobbying as the NRA tries like hell to be effective with only a miniscule percentage of gun owners willing to pay the way. These are people who think that law suits and lobbying and pro-gun candidate support happen out of thin air, for free. And when the lack of participation results in an occasional loss along the way, these free-loaders point the finger at the NRA screaming and yelling....."See .... see.....they are useless"! In reality, the only useless ones are the free-loaders who ride the coat-tails of those who put their money and efforts where their mouths are. Instead of running your mouth and proclaiming that all you are is a cheap-skate whiner, you should hang your head in shame and admit that you don't have the courage of your fake convictions regarding the 2nd amendment and the organizations that have for decades safeguarded the gun rights you have enjoyed all these decades (for free). It's bad enough to not financially support the only organization that fights for your 2nd amendment rights, but to turn around like the gun control nuts themselves and attack the NRA shows a complete lack of character and conviction. Frankly I am getting damned tired of your senseless carping. I have little patience with people like that. Today gun ownership is under more well-financed attacks than ever before, and the fight requires more backbone and support and unity than ever, and here we have weasels sniping from within doing the gun-grabbers work for them.